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I saw Hsiao-hsien Hou's Café Lumière Monday. It's the first Hsiao-hsien Hou film I've seen and I liked it but didn't love it. I wasn't particularly in the mood for a slow elliptical wandering film, but at times I was completely enraptured and stunned by the film's quiet beauty. The sound design was some of the best I've ever experienced in film - incidental noise like outside traffic and subtle noises like someone swallowing food - completely brought me into the slow lyrical passages and kept me there.
The sound and the visuals and the 'story' focused on the tiny passages skipped over by most film: watching trains go by, hanging laundry, relaxing in your parent's living room with your cat as your mom cooks and your dad drinks a beer. The plot was incidental; what was important was the slice of life, emotional, physical, experiential, that we allowed to share. It was a film for a voyeur who is interested in the minutia of life.
I kept thinking of Yasujiro Ozu and his obsession with families and tiny gestures, and then I read that the film was Hsiao-hsien's homage to Ozu. It makes sense, but I'm not an Ozu junkie and I've only seen three of his films, so I really don't have much of a point of reference.
A couple of minor things that stuck in my mind:
- The scene where both characters pass each other, unnoticed, on different trains was deeply touching (btw, the trains are omnipresent).
- The fixation on changelings and missing mothers was odd and oddly unexplored. The focus on silence, things unsaid, and missed communication was stifling.
- All of the characters, and the entire movie, was constrained and only released in sound and subway.
- Lastly, the ending non-diagetic song was jarring and misplaced.
I guess I just want to know what you all thought of the film. I'm still not sure. And what about other Hsiao-hsien Hou films? Is Café Lumière representative?
We also tried to get into Seijun Suzuki's new film, Princess Racoon, but it was sold out. It's playing one more time this week, and you can bet your ass I'll be there.
June 22 2005, 21:07:18 UTC 6 years ago
Cafe Lumiere hasn't(I think) even come close to playing here yet, so I can't really be helpful in my comment on the actual topic at all. Sorry.
June 23 2005, 10:27:02 UTC 6 years ago
June 23 2005, 08:21:44 UTC 6 years ago
Even though much has been made of the fact that Hou uses the trains as if he had taken them from Ozu, one of my favorite scenes in a Hou film involves a strangely beautiful and jarring train ride (Goodbye South, Goodbye).
In the end, I simply loved this film, I'm obsessed with the way that Hou ultimately places his camera, which moments he chooses to capture and why. Plus, for two movies in a row now he has shot what I consider to be two of the most beautiful final shots ever filmed. But yeah, Hou is one of my favorite filmmakers, especially because sometimes even days after seeing his films, I start feeling the need to sit down and watch them again, he is a filmmaker who makes movies that I love to watch over and over in order to not simply understand, but to fall in love with his images all over again.
Oh, and if you get the chance to go to the NY Film fest, his latest, "Three Times," will most likely play there (damn you NYC!!)
June 23 2005, 10:26:14 UTC 6 years ago
I'm going to go see Suzuki's Princess Racoon on Sat.
But about the film - did you not find the closing pop song jarring and cloying? I couldn't figure out why he put it in. The whole film's only non-diagetic music was the composer's piece and that fit wonderfully, since it felt like we were in the girl's head listening to it long after we heard it. That ending song just didn't set right with me.
June 25 2005, 15:27:38 UTC 6 years ago